On March 11, 1965, President
Johnson devoted much of the day to discussing the civil rights demonstrations
in Selma, Alabama. Just after noon, the President met with the National
Newspaper Publishers Association, a group of Negro publishers, in the Cabinet
Room and talked with them about the situation in Selma. Late in the morning
a small group of civil rights demonstrators staged a sit-in in the East
Wing of the White House. Several hours later policemen removed the demonstrators.
At a White House reception that evening for members of Congress, the President
spoke on the situation in Selma and asked Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach
to brief the Congressmen. Bureau of the Budget Director Kermit Gordon also
briefed the Congressmen on the budget, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
spoke on the Defense budget and the situation in Vietnam. During the reception
an aide handed the President a note informing him that Reverend James Reeb,
a white minister from Boston who had been beaten the previous day in Selma
by four white men, had died in a Birmingham hospital. Johnson left the reception
to telephone Reeb's wife and father and returned after talking to them.